Ex-CHRB boss having second thoughts

DEL MAR — Richard Shapiro, head of the California Horse Racing Board when the mandate for synthetic racing surfaces at the state's major tracks passed three years ago, is among the ranks of the disillusioned with what the rule has wrought.

“In 20-20 hindsight, I would not have pushed for a mandate,” Shapiro, now retired, said in a phone interview yesterday. “You ask me if I'm disappointed and, in a word, the answer is yes.”

The genesis of Shapiro's involvement in the movement to synthetics was a discussion with trainer Bob Baffert at “Clocker's Corner,” the morning gathering place for horsemen, at Santa Anita a few years ago.

Baffert, Shapiro said, spoke of safety concerns with Santa Anita specifically and California tracks in general. He spoke to how, because of the reputation California tracks had as being dangerously hard and fast, top Eastern trainers were strongly opposed to shipping marquee horses west for major races, or sending strings of lower-level ones for everyday competition.

“That was really the call to arms for me,” Shapiro said. “I felt I had to do something.”

From that initial conversation came meetings with a score or more of trainers and calls for change from diverse groups at a CHRB meeting.

“Every segment of the industry was in favor. It wasn't just Richard Shapiro and the board pushing something through,” Shapiro said.

“When we moved forward to synthetics, it was a time when there were a tremendous number of fatalities and breakdowns. The motivation was to try to find something to stem those losses. We had numerous meetings and interviewed representatives of all the companies.

“We went in thinking that this would benefit the industry as a whole.”

The mandate was approved in May 2006, soon after Barbaro's breakdown in the Preakness at the Pimlico track in Baltimore. There weren't expectations that synthetics would be a cure-all or panacea. And they certainly haven't been.

“They have lessened the fatalities, but have not proven to be what we thought they would,” Shapiro said. “They require more maintenance and have not been as consistent as we anticipated. And while they have lowered fatalities there are indications of problems with injuries that aren't fatal.

“Clearly there's a divided constituency about them. I still believe they have promise and hope. To have done nothing and to have the tracks continue to be harder and less safe would have been unconscionable.”

Last month Jess Jackson, a Californian and owner of Preakness Stakes-winning filly Rachel Alexandra, fired a broadside at California's synthetics in announcing that his stable star wouldn't run in the Breeders' Cup this fall at Santa Anita because of the Pro-Ride surface there.

“I'm hoping that we'll have some dirt tracks in California,” Jackson said. “If we do that, I hope they stay to dirt because we do need to race in California. California racing needs its stars as well.”

Said Shapiro: “If most of the industry wants to go back to dirt, they should go back to dirt. But I think that racetrack surfaces have become somewhat of a scapegoat for the problems of horse racing.

“Racetrack surfaces are not the sole cause of breakdowns. There are many other factors including medications and breeding practices.”